Eating With Purpose: Vegan Diets to Control Blood Pressure, Cholesterol

To omnivores, a vegan diet can seem restrictive. But all things are relative, even when it comes to victuals. My brother Max Koteen started doing the RAVE diet a few years ago, and I have to say it sounded like a tough—but extremely healthy—row to hoe. RAVE is an acronym that stands for the type of foods to be avoided: refined, animal-based, vegetable oils, and “no exceptions.” Sounds a bit masochistic, doesn’t it? On the surface it makes eating vegan sound like a walk in the park, but the two are similar, minus the refined foods and oils. And of course the goal is the same: to be healthy by eating well.

He started the diet to support his mother in law, who had cancer a few years ago and wanted to eat uber healthy to improve her chances at beating it (and she’s doing great, by the way). But Max had his own health motivations, as well. About ten years ago he needed a kidney transplant, and I was able to donate one of my kidneys to him. The transplant was a success, made even smoother because we are a perfect genetic match. However, even with the close match, he was on a dizzying schedule of medications. After adopting the diet, he was able to cut out a number of his meds, not to mention having more energy, and loosing weight. It’s all pretty amazing, and it’s been a moving example to the rest of our family of how important eating well really is.

In the months since the interview, he’s actually loosened up his diet a bit, enjoying the occasional non-RAVE meal with friends, and not stressing so much about it all.—Casey Koteen (husband of Well Vegan)

Q&A with Max

You’ve been on a plant-based diet, although you took it a step further with the RAVE diet. How does that relate to veganism?
On RAVE you don’t eat any animal products, which is like being vegan. But it gears towards more of a raw-based diet where you don’t eat refined things like soy milk, or say some refined ingredients put together to taste or look like a burger. On RAVE you wouldn’t eat anything processed like that.

What does refined exclude? For instance, would you eat peanut butter?
Well, at Whole Foods they have a peanut butter grinder and so I’ll take peanuts and grind them into peanut butter. Basically it should maintain as close to its original form as possible.

What got you started eating healthier?
Deniz’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Deniz did a lot of research on diet and other things that her mom could do other than chemotherapy. She found the RAVE diet, and we tried it as well, basically to support her mom doing it. After reading the book and doing research, I was thinking it would be great if I didn’t have to take some of the medications I was taking for blood pressure and cholesterol.

You’ve had some amazing benefits from changing your diet, what have been some of the most measurable?
Getting off of blood pressure medication. For a while, when I was on it, my blood pressure was still 140/80, and I imagine if I wasn’t taking it at all back before the diet, it might be 150-160/100. But now I haven’t been taking it for a year and half or more, and this morning for example my numbers are 113/75, so my blood pressure is excellent with just changing my diet and not even taking medication for it.

And then before I was on medication for cholesterol it was 190-200, and the medication actually helped bring it down, but now I’m not taking it and I’ve got it down below 150, which is what I shoot for.

My creatinine, which is one of the main things I measure to see how my kidney implant is doing, is the lowest it’s ever been. My all around numbers are just really good.

How soon after switching your diet did you notice an improvement in your numbers?
Well, the only one I could immediately measure was blood pressure, because I only measure cholesterol every four to six months. But my blood pressure started dropping immediately, within a week or two. During that time I was constantly having to tweak my blood pressure medications because it was dropping too low with the dosage I was originally on, which actually wasn’t very fun. I’d get blood pressure spikes, or it would go too low. But I noticed a change right away.

What was your doctor’s reaction?
He was stoked. He said that in the earlier days they controlled blood pressure by diet, before the medications. So he was happy that changing my diet had other positive effects. I’ve seen other doctors too, and they’re impressed I’m a kidney transplant recipient who’s not on blood pressure or cholesterol medication, and that I’m as healthy as I am.

Take us through a normal breakfast for you.
I usually eat muesli with water, and blueberries and strawberries. Sometimes I’ll have just fruit. I like Bob’s Red Mill Muesli. I basically look at the nutritional data on the side for low fat, low sodium, no cholesterol, and no crazy ingredients I can’t pronounce.

Do you eat three big meals or snack throughout the day?
I eat three big meals, but I do snack in between, too. I snack on a lot of nuts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, sunflower seeds. I try to have a salad with most of the lunches and dinners, and for those I’ll make pizza, tamale pie, stuffed tomatoes, lots of rice with vegetables. In fact, if the fridge is getting kinda empty, I’ll just make a big batch of rice and whatever veggies are in there I’ll throw it on there with some low sodium soy sauce, or even salsa. We make a lot of sandwiches, too.

Do you eat bread? That must be a processed food, right?
I use whole-wheat tortillas, which aren’t 100 percent RAVE, but I’m ok with that. I use lavash, a middle eastern bread, and I can get it with just four or so ingredients. Sometimes I’ll use whole wheat bread, all natural. It’s got some non-RAVE ingredients, but the nutritional value is good and it’s not like it’s Wonder Bread.

I remember a few Christmases ago, you had a day or two where you relaxed the diet and scarfed down some candy, and your blood pressure spiked right away.
Yeah even if I go back to only RAVE diet the next day, as that stuff goes through my system I don’t feel great. The funny thing about that though, is if my blood pressure is at 140—if it’s 150 I definitely feel it and it sucks—but say 140 over 80 or 90, I won’t feel that great, but I read about people who have every day blood pressures of 160/90, or 170/110, and I can’t believe people can function at those levels. I think it’s part of acclimating to that life.

What’s normal blood pressure?
The systolic should be between 110 and 120, so say 120 and below. And the diastolic should be between 60 and 79. 120/70 is the platform they use in the U.S.

So what’s your favorite RAVE meal?
Thai Wraps, that was one of the first ones we made, and I’ve made a ton of the recipes and to be honest, some of them suck. But the Thai wraps are really good. If we have people over who aren’t used to the diet, we’ll make that. It won’t taste like cardboard to them because they’ve been eating Big Macs.